Skilled Trades Program
Immigration Options
Federal Skilled Trades Program
The Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP) was launched on January 2nd 2013 in order to provide a route for skilled trades people to immigrate to Canada.
All applicants must meet the following minimal requirements to apply as a skilled trades worker:
- You must have at least two years of work experience in an accepted occupation
- You must have this experience in the last five years
- You must obtain a Certificate of Qualification or you must have a job offer(s) from up to two Canadian employers that totals at least one year of full time work
- You must meet the minimum language requirements in English or French
What are the minimal language requirements?
You must meet the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 5 level for speaking and listening, and CLB 4 for reading and writing in either English or French to be eligible for the Federal Skilled Trades Program.
For English, results from both the CELPIP (Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program) and the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) tests are accepted.
The minimum results for the CELPIP are 3H, 2L, 2L and 3H, for the Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking language abilities, respectively:
| CLB Level | Minimum score for each ability | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking | |
| 5 | 3L | 3L | 3L | 3L |
| 4 | 2H | 2H | 2H | 2H |
The minimum results for the IELTS are 5.0, 3.5, 4.0 and 5.0, for the Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking language abilities, respectively:
| CLB Level | Minimum score for each ability | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking | |
| 5 | 5.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| 4 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 |